A Day in the Life of a College Student: Road Trip

This past weekend fifteen of us drove to Wake Forest for the last Clemson basketball game of the season. We traveled to Winston-Salem, NC to support ourteam. It was a little disappointing that our team couldn't pull out a win in the end; however, we still had fun cheering them on. We drove back to Clemson after the game and arrived back in town early Monday morning.

It has been an easy week due to the fact that I have worked ahead in all of my classes. Monday after my Organic lab my friends and I enjoyed the sunny weather by longboarding off-campus for three hours. It was the perfect way to start the week by exercising outdoors.

Spring break starts on Friday, so I am pretty excited about going home. I’m ready for a whole week of surfing, wakeboarding, hanging out with friends, eating home-cooked meals, and sleeping in as late as I want to!

A Day in the Life of a College Student: Snow in March?

This was a very long weekend for me. As usual I spent a good amount of time in the Sonoco lab working on my dream apartment in Google SketchUp 7, so it could be YouTube ready by Tuesday. My video can be seen below.

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The highlight of the weekend was the snow. Unbelievable, right? It started snowing in the upstate Sunday afternoon and continued through the night resulting in the cancellation of classes on Monday. Clemson also had a two hour delay of classes Tuesday morning because of the abundant black ice on the roadways. The wintry weather made for a relatively short week for me.

On Sunday a group of us are driving up to Wake Forest for the final Clemson basketball game. It will be a lot of driving and even more fun for one day. I can't wait!!

The Role of the Media in Today’s Economy

The economy is never far from our minds, whether we like it or not. The media keeps the state of the economy all around us. Newspapers, radio, television, magazines, and the internet bombard us with the good, the bad, and the ugly (mostly the latter two) on an up to the minute basis. Not only does the media report on the economy, it also affects the very economy on which it reports.

The media’s role in the economy is two-fold. Its main role is to report the facts in an unbiased manner. In a perfect world, those facts would be simple and straightforward. Unfortunately, that is often not the case. Journalists and news media are sometimes swayed by the media owner’s bottom line. They may skew the news in a way that benefits the success of their corporation. They may have a vested interest in economic policies that are under review and may slant the reports of those policies to influence the public. For example, the stimulus bill we have all been learning about is several thousand pages long and full of complicated ways to spend billions of dollars. The general public (and most of Congress) is not likely to read and understand this entire bill. The news media chooses to report on what they feel is necessary in terms of what the bill contains. The media condenses and simplifies the information however it sees fit, which gives them a wide berth to tell the news in a positive or negative light.

The second role of the media in the economy is to advertise products and services. All forms of media are supported in some part by advertising. People read or listen to different forms of media, while consciously or subconsciously absorbing the products and services touted in the ads and commercials surrounding the news stories. As people see what is available, they buy. Spending money stimulates the economy.

The internet has vastly changed the way media affects the economy. The World Wide Web makes it possible for everyone to have instant access to news and information in all corners of the globe on a second by second basis. Stock market trends, blogs, political websites, opinion pieces, news of environmental disasters, setbacks or success in wars, etc are all at our fingertips. This information can turn the economy on a dime depending on the feelings of hope or fear that people gather from this news. When people are afraid for their future and well-being they tend to not spend money or take risks in the stock market, which can have a devastating effect on the economy. Positive spin and hope have the opposite effect.

It seems clear to me that the media does play a big role in the economy, in more ways than one. I feel it is important to take advantage of the many forms of media available to me and to do my own research in order to truly understand what is going on in the economy today.

A Day in the Life of a College Student: Hiding from Sleep...

After a few bumps in the road, Valentine’s weekend was a total success. The florist ‘lost’ the order I placed the week before, and the restaurant temporarily ‘misplaced’ the dinner reservations I made weeks before….but all of it was eventually sorted out. I shared a delicious meal with a really great girl at Calhoun Corners and had a fun, memorable weekend.

I’m paying this week for the time spent away from studying over the weekend. I have tons of homework to do and several big exams to prepare for. I have Pkgsc 103 tutorials and online exams to complete, which wouldn’t be so bad if my computer didn’t continually freeze and crash in the middle of them! The amount of material covered on my Pkgsc 204 exam is about to make my brain explode. My big organic chemistry exam is lurking just around the corner, and I need to study overtime for that. Too bad I can’t change 24/7 into 28/7 until I get all of this done. I’ll just keep plugging away. Who needs sleep, anyway?

A Day in the Life of a College Student: Keeping Busy

This past weekend I went home to Charleston to visit my family and finish my homework. The weather was in the high 70s the whole weekend, which was nice. Before I left on Sunday, my dad and I played each other in basketball at our neighborhood basketball court. This week has been quite busy so far. It feels like all of the days are beginning to run together so much that I have no idea what day it should be. Monday started with packaging class and ended at 3:30pm with Organic Chemistry Lab. In lab our team distilled hexane from a 1:1 ratio of hexane to toluene. Tuesday was one of my rather long 8am-5pm days. Thursday will be the same story. I was assigned a project in packaging 422/220 that is due next week. The first part of the project requires students to disassemble a flash drive without destroying the drive itself. Students will then draw it to scale in Solidworks. Along with weekly classes, I’ve been staying ahead with my Organic Chemistry readings and doing the required homework. This weekend is Valentine’s weekend, which should be exciting.

Day in the Life of a College Student: Week 4

Another week has passed, as well as another set of classes. This week was quite busy. I spent the majority of the weekend finishing up my Solidworks homework and studying for my Organic Chemistry exam. Saturday I got to hang out with the most amazing girl at her going away party. Sunday comprised of driving home from Bri’s party in Fort Mill and studying the night away. Monday was a short day of classes. Tuesday was a chilly morning starting with an organic exam that went well. Tuesday ended with my packaging 422/220 Solidworks class. Wednesday I was able to spend the whole day in the computer lab working on projects for 422/220. My extra long day of classes Thursday progressed as usual. Friday I plan to drive home to Charleston and relax with my wonderful family.

A Day in the Life of a College Student: Ballin’

As you can tell by now, I love basketball! Friday a group of 20 of my friends started camping out for the Clemson versus Georgia Tech basketball game Sunday night to ensure that our group would be first in line. Our camp site in front of Little John Coliseum included 3 camping tents, 1 tailgating tent, a table, multiple chairs, satellite TV, a grill, food, and drinks. The lights on the sides of the student entrance to the stadium allowed us to see everything at night and enabled me to get most of my homework done. The only brutal part of the whole experience was the weather. It was cold, and the hours seemed never-ending. At night the IPTAY employees ensured that two people from each group of ten were always at the camp and one person during the day. If your group violated this rule, your group would be booted from the line, so it was important to make sure your members were always at their shift. Ridiculous, right? Well, here are the positive results that made it all worthwhile: front row seats on the floor risers, appearing on FOX news during the game, six or seven close ups on ESPN, being shown on the big screen in the coliseum, school spirit, and beating Georgia Tech 73-59!

Monday was my first organic chemistry lab. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. My team was out of the lab within two hours. This lab seems like it will be a lot easier then the chemistry 102 lab last semester. Tuesday was another long day starting with organic class, racquetball, Packaging 204, and Packaging 422/220. Tuesday ended with organic tutoring to prepare for my exam next week. Wednesday comprised of spending the entire day in the Packaging 422/220 Mac computer lab working on Solid Works homework. Thursday was just as long as Tuesday, since it is the same schedule of classes from 8:00am to 5:00pm.